Ellie's Road to Recovery
by Frob
Summary: Joel and Ellie have been living in Jackson County for a while. One day Ellie comes back with an ankle injury and aching feet and Joel has to deal with it, and keep Ellie from sneaking out.


Life in Jackson County had become monotone. Surprisingly there haven't been as many bandit attacks or any infected within the vicinity. Ellie would go to the closest thing they had to a school, would read books, jog around the town and reconvene with Joel in their living quarter in the evening when they would start having conversations about the old world and about their boring day in Johnson county. A few months passed like this quiet and uneventful.

It was another day like that, similar to the previous dull and gray fall evenings. Joel was sitting on the small, ragged couch and staring at the celling, making plans for the next day: he will probably be on another guard duty again. Suddenly he heard something continuously popping. He did not pay attention to it at first, but as it continued he turned around and looked at Ellie's direction: she was reading a comic book while making circular motions with her foot on the wooden chair, the popping was apparently coming from the ankle. Joel turned around and looked back up at the ceiling with not much concern, but the popping intrigued him a little, so he shifted his focus from the ceiling to the movements of her foot. It would stop moving occasionally, no matter how Ellie tried to move it. It basically gave out. Sometimes it would lock up, and a louder pop would follow. The popping occasionally disappeared, but came back up minutes later, he counted as much as a hundred pops and it gave out twice, until Ellie finally noticed Joel starting at it:

"What's wrong, Joel?" She quietly asked, putting one of her hand on her foot instinctively. Joel snapped back in to his senses:

"That's a lot of poppin' comin' from a joint." He commented. Ellie really did not pay much attention to it, but Joel had a point, something might have happened. She decided to be more playful rather than concerned about it:

"Well, if you are that curious, you can check it out." She said looking down at her shoe. Joel out of concern and out of interest decided to take a look. He approached her and took off her shoe, revealing what initially was a white sock, but now it looked grey and dirty.

"Sorry, my feet are a little beat up today, too much jogging." She said as she popped her toes. Joel moved her ankle a little bit, causing a few loud pops. Ellie was a little weirded out by that, but she was also concerned about the fact that it might have been from an old injury flaring up, and the fact that it was giving out and locking up raised red flags already. Her feet generally hurt from jogging for hours, especially after that her shoes got worse by the day.

"You should stay off it, Ellie. If you don't, it might eventually start giving out, and once that happens it is a matter of life and death out there." Joel commented slightly rubbing her ankle with one hand and the sole with the other, which Ellie noticed felt very nice, though she was bummed out about staying off for few days.

"Ah, bummer…" She crossed her arms and added "If you're planning on rubbing my foot, might as well take off the sock"

Joel was confused, he did that to ensure everything was well, rather than for Ellie's enjoyment, but it looked like the girl really wanted him to give her a foot massage. He thought it would not hurt and took off her sock, and a foot with a few small bruises and longish toes was unmasked.

"Talk about beat up, don't strain yourself like this, Ellie." Joel mumbled as he proceeded to rub her ankle.

"This is good…" Ellie sighed in relief. "This is very good. This is heavenly…"

"Looks like there is some swellin' that you did not notice…" He pointed out, moving his thumbs from the ankle to the sole. Ellie was good at ignoring pain, and not being overdramatic, to a point that she ignored the discomfort in her ankle completely. Joel started rubbing her tired and tense foot, which at first was a little painful.

"Ouch…" Ellie whispered, but Joel did not seem to hear and applied more pressure, slowly it started to feel good, but while it didn't Ellie was making faces and closely watching the process. She felt all the tension melting away. Ellie got fixated on her foot enough that she blocked everything else around her.

"You alright, baby girl?" Joel questioned, snapping Ellie out of her trance as he popped her toes.

"Oh, this is helping me relax, thanks Joel. Rub more around the arch area, will ya?" She asked him playfully. Joel obliged, but gave her a look disapproving her playfulness, but it came off as it was getting to him. Ellie giggled as his thumb went up and down her arch, she let out a sigh of relief and relaxation. Joel suddenly stopped, even though Ellie did not want him to.

"This is wrong. What am I doin'?" He asked himself and put his hands on his head. He stood up and got makeshift splints out of his backpack.

"What do you mean, Joel? That was amazing!" She said moving her foot around. The way Joel looked at her foot made Ellie catch on: "Sounds like you enjoyed rubbing my foot as well. Why not do it more often?" She took off the shoe from her other foot: "Rub this one as well. It hurts from all the jogging and stuff"

"Ellie, cut it. Never again you're gettin' a foot rub from me. This never happened." Joel said putting splints on her hurt ankle. Ellie was visibly upset, but decided to keep it in. She wanted more of the massage that eased all the stress accumulated in her foot from running from the infected and endless travelling, as well as her recently flared up ankle.

"B..but… Joel… I enjoyed it, it was really…" She said propping her other foot on Joel, which he declined at first, but taking a second look at the splint made him feel bad for Ellie, and he was guilty as charged, he did enjoy giving her the massage, though he did not want to admit it. He grabbed her right foot after elevating her ankle on another chair. Ellie's eyes sparkled.

"I am gonna get bandages or a brace tomorrow for your ankle, but that's what I have for now. Stay off it for a week or two. We're also going to strengthen the muscle so it stops giving out." He said while proceeding to rub her right foot, where her ankle was intact. He forgot to take off the sock, so although it was enjoyable, the fabric rubbed against her skin.

"Joel, the sock." Ellie pointed out. Joel took off her sock and realized that the foot was a little swollen. He shook his head, mumbling: "Now what?"

"Alright, Ellie, where does it hurt?" He asked as he massaged the foot.

"Oh, it is just tired, not really hurt, but I would say that it is the top part of my sole that bothers me most." She answered, and Joel immediately put pressure there, "Ngh…Oh, that's pretty swollen."

"No kiddin'" He tried to rub it out and it appeared to be working, Ellie was enjoying herself.

"What's wrong with it?" She suddenly asked as Joel stopped. "I did not break it, did I?"

Joel gave her a surprised look as why she would ask that question. Everything seemed to be in order, but she did not tell him anything about hurting herself.

"I fell of a tree a few days ago…" She explained looking down with a puppy face. Joel decided to leave Ellie free to walk around on that foot, but he took away her shoes.

"You're grounded for a few days. Give your feet a rest." He decided standing up from the wooden chair, that Ellie was using as a foot rest. Ellie wanted to protest, but looking at her ankle and feet, she accepted:

"Fine. Just give me foot rubs whenever you can." She said kicking back and proceeding to read her comic book. Joel went out to get a few supplies back to their house. Ellie decided to use this opportunity to get up and find her shoes to sneak out just in case. As she got up, her splint got loose, and she felt a little insecure on her ankle, even though there was not much pain. She took a few steps and suddenly collapsed as her ankle decided to give out randomly. She heard a few loud pops. This time she felt the pain and the cold running down her spine, sending her in to shock and knocking her unconscious. She regained her consumes and discovered that she was on the couch, and her feet were on Joel's lap. Her ankle had the splint on again, but this time it was tighter and there was an icepack on the ankle.

"I told you to stay off of it. It was swollen like a ball when I found you lyin' on the floor." He explained as he warmed her foot up, so it would not get even colder in the chilly room from the ice.

"How long was I out?" She asked with a weak voice.

"An hour or so." Joel responded. "This is going to be an interestin' road to recovery, Ellie."

"Recovery?" She panicked. "Joel, I am fine, it is just a minor set…ouch… back."

Ellie was determined to get on her feet eventually and go outside, but Joel was against that idea for at least a week or two.

"Young lady, you are in no shape to walk even short distances at this point. Give it a rest, you will be fine.

 _To be continued…_


End file.
